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3 Comments

As a show topic, can we bring up the SSTO race of the 1990’s. Would any of the 3 SSTO’s have worked? Esp the Rockwell and McDonald Douglas design. Why did not Lockheed and Boeing consider this as a long term Altas V replacement? Do they doubt it could have worked? Lockheed still had their nearly completed X33 prototype. I personally think a pure rocket SSTO would work better than a Jet/rocket hybrid SSTO.

If you take Boeing’s share (40%) of Sea Launch as a proportional cedrit toward U.S. commercial launches, this picture doesn’t look so bad — it actually shows the U.S. improving in its share of the market. Adding that Sea Launch wedge also makes it look more like the future — international joint ventures. Note that the Russians are preparing to launch Soyuz launchers from Kourou, taking advantage of Europe’s buildup of infrastructure there. In the orbital tourism segment, I have great hopes for Excalibur Almaz.The real problem is that the 90s bubble created overcapacity, while launch demand has been flat in the 00’s. The U.S. is not “lagging” in propulsion — Holdren specifically exempts private-sector efforts on new propulsion systems, while also expressing optimism about them. Yes, the launcher workforce is greying, but there are a lot of grey heads in the Russian launch industry as well.